Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 6.5X47 Lapua and 140 berger doing 2900 fps???

OK...

So I have been in correspondence with a very well known smith about a 6.5 build. I'm not a novice around reloading, ballistics or competition shooting.. but for the life of me I cannot figure out how they are doing this...

it is a 25" barrel



am I missing something?

I could see 45.1 grs...but that is a very compressed load. 108% of capacity.

Sure. Run 72k psi and you can get there no problem...

John

OK he said safely????

You can achieve this easily with Vit N540 and N550 with CCI small rifle magnum primers. I am getting I got 2780 with 39grs of N540 and I am running a 22" barrel.

I'm getting 2960 with 130 Bergers and 40.5 grains of H4350 from a 25" Broughton. Viht 560 is a high energy powder and Lapua brass is tough, two reasons why someone may be able to push the 140 Berger to 3000. Or..... 70,000 psi.

Yep,

2900+ fps with the 140 VLD is totally possible; AND SAFE! With my first 6.5x47 I wanted to see what I could get with that combo as I was considering a light wt LR rig for hunting. At 43 gr of Rel 17 and the 140 VLD I was hitting 2960 fps with a 26" Krieger barrel. With 42.5 gr of Rel 17 and the 140 Accubond I got to 2910 fps.

I decided to make the jump and had the same gunsmith put together another rifle with a 26" Broughton, using the same reamer in a Pierce action.

140 AB, 42.5 gr Rel 17 = 2874 fps
140 VLD, 43.5 gr Rel 17 = 3021 fps
140 PT, 42.5 gr Rel 17 = 2945 fps

These were with CCI 450's. I did see pressure at these levels such as ejector marks or "slight" bolt lift issues.

I did pursue both the 140 PT and VLD loads and settled on

41.6 gr, 140 PT, 2869 fps
42.1 gr, 140 VLD, 2963 fps

From there I tried different primers and the Fed 205M came out on top. This surprised me because in my BIG Surgeon rifle, the CCI450 is the champ with H4350 and the 130 VLD.

I've run 5 firings on my brass with the VLD load and the pockets are still tight. I recently had a long talk with a ballistic lab buddy of mine who works for a LARGE powder company and we both agree i'm probably running 70K psi. He convinced me that with the modern case design of the -47 case, minimal case taper, sharper shoulder angle, small primer pockets, optimal neck length, minimal case sizing, Rel 17 and the VLD bullet with it's short bearing surface, I and my rifle are totally safe. He's a BR shooter and he and others routinely run 70K psi loads at weekend BR matches where hundreds of shots are fired over a weekend COF.

With all the above said, if one decides to reach into this territory, you need to know what you're doing and approach very carefully.

Alan

Cant tell ya for sure what the loading was but I shot a 6.5x47 L last summer at Ridgeway and took down several steel coyotes at 1000 yards usuing the 140g SMK.
2700 2900 who really cares?
It works.

dave

I've been running 130gr VLD and 123gr scenars at 2900-3000 with no issue.
That's my Stiller Krieger Combo. I have a Kimber Montana for the brother in law sitting here waiting for load development now too. I plan on shooting 120TTSX's over 2900 with it.

Um I care... about the safety thing. The rifles arn't cheap and 'jus making sure things like this arn't smoke and mirrors.

I'm not a speed freak but I am an accuracy nut and the claims are ragged holes at these speeds.

GSSP.

That's some good info. I appreciate it.

A set of 0-1 mikes and a good hand priming tool to tell if your primer pockets are getting big are your friend.
In the accuracy game how fast a bullet traveles is irrelevant other than usuing it to figure your drops.
I watched a 12 year old girl running a 6mm BR with a 105g Berger mop up at Ridgeway against guys that have been shooting for decades.
Her dad taught her how to read wind flags.

dave

With my Pierce, after a bit of throat wear = vel loss.

Alan

100 yd zero



576 yd verification; .53 MOA



833 yd cross canyon, downhill angle from Snipe-Pod/prone.



The tool

Keep posting pics - have to ship one of my new 260s to you w/Lapua Brass and let you work out the details Lol.

Nice shooting Alan!

very nice

dave

GSSP,

Who built it?

What's the scope there GSSP?

Thx
Dober

Cliff,

How's this?





I'm up to it! I love to work up loads during our winter months. Teens and 20's keeps the barrel nice and cool; no waiting for barrel to cool.

Cocadori,

Chris Matthews of Longshot Rifles but sadly, he just filed Ch 7.

Dober,

NF 2.5-10x32mm with NP-R1 reticle.

For the record, before his lathe went the by and by, Chris just took 1-2" of the barrel shank and trimmed the action of metal to bring the rifle under 8 lbs, if possible. Re-Cerakote then ship to me this week. Too bad as I have a late season Ute Tribe cow elk hunt and am leaving in about 3 hours. The tribe says with zero snow the elk are extremely spooky and a LR shot may be in order. So, I'm bring my BIG Surgeon with the 130 VLD @ 2850. Total confidence as I won the Utah State Sniper Shoot with this rifle/load in Sept. I'm hoping to drop my cow with my custom Pre 64 M70 in 257 Rob/115 BT but if I can't get close enough, the Surgeon is getting used.

I always got better velocity with N550, N540, and RL 17 but received the best accuracy with 41.5grs of H4350

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/index.php/topic,3778200.0.html


dave

Maybe I need a new powder, but I get nowhere near the speeds you guys are posting out of my 6.5x55, using 140's. I think I am at 2600fps or so. I am not hitting 3000 until I dropped to 100gr bullets. The Swede is a larger case, and I am using a modern rifle/loads.